IiPunch - Monk Guide

I want to say prioritize upgrading the body. The Normal +1 is kinda suicidal to use. The +2 adds some much needed meva/MDB

Is it? It's a bump of 40 meva and 3 mdb for +1 > +2, id personally take the same + -13 DT on the legs that youd use full time. But they should both be priority pieces

Loving this job and its high hp / defense / damage. Though it's also an all-physical job so just curious, how often might I be in trouble in solo / trust content without access to magic or self heals from ailments? I don't mind a bit of less damage to blunt resistant enemies, but curious about how often I'll find physical immune enemies out there, or those that entirely need magic support like bar spells, erases, etc.

Ody in general has its share of heavy blunt resistant instances, otherwise its pretty sparse for phys res/immune stuff i think

Supports a diff thing and imo is almost always a factor, if not for general buffs then bars can greatly lower bad debuffs like stun/para/amnesia and most current content loves its dmg+debuff moves so nas/erase are a regular thing

depends entirely on what you are trying to defeat solo with just trusts.

if you're really dependent on removing buffs yourself, blu might be a better option for you in those fights

Thanks. I think a recent example would be the whale from last week's ambu v2 that just kept on doing spike paralysis. Maybe a MEVA set would've solved it but I assumed a job like RDM could've just used bar-paralysis or a mage job could've spammed magic over physical, (not sure). Then there's terragazer in this month's v2 that needs non-physical damage, although in this case form less strikes works very well so not too worried about that.

I've been working on BLU alternatively to my MNK and I feel like it has more of a safety net for trying new things, but if there's nothing that'll destroy a monk's competency such as spikes or some sorts of magic buffs or immunity, then I've always found it easier to kill through things at great speed with monk, as well as survive things I shouldn't be surviving as BLU regardless of gear.

Keep in mind that gear with +Magic Evade is a big factor here. As you gear up you have better options for this and it helps a lot with status effects.

MNK is an excellent solo w/ Trusts or lowman option. High HP, high evasion, counters, low TP feed, consistent damage (against most targets), easy self skillchains, self heal...however it is a one-trick pony and fights that require some finesse / dispels / debuffs it will suffer as Trusts do badly there.

MNK is a specialist at high-end. It trivializes some fights, but I am constantly amazed when I do Odyssey bosses and I swap from my extremely well geared MNK to my lesser geared WAR, DRG or SAM and they perform similarly (if not better) even with much worse gear. My advice would definitely have a backup job or two that attack from different angles / playstyles because the game favors having options even if MNK is your favorite like me.

What would be the best H2H for a new alt monk?

You need to set more parameters. Karambit as the default.

karambit or godhands if you either can lowman a aeonic or pay for a merc, which if you were going to buy a pulse anyway for karambits, mayswell pay a little extra for a better weapon

I just need something to hold me over until i get 50k beads i can low man aeonic.

If you can low man Aeonic and it's just a matter of farming beads and doing the Aeonic NMs, just buy Sakpata's Fists to hold you over until you finish Godhands.

Given your situation, I wouldn't even bother making Karambit unless you already have the Ambuscade materials and a pulse weapon stored away, and didn't need any other final stage Ambu weapons.

There are several options from Unity as well.

karambit are your best option, worth having a pair for other jobs anyways imo

I would also say that R0 Sakpata's are decent.

This really depends on the player, content, and other available jobs though. If this character is just gonna play MNK or PUP, there's no reason to ever use Karambit again once you get Godhands. In that case, just spend the couple million gil on Sakpata R0 to hold you until finishing the Aeonic, or grab one of the Unity H2Hs because who cares if it's not that great if it's truly only a temporary stopgap.

If you feel you're gonna do Odyssey Gaol NMs where the setup calls for having that character use THF or DNC and needing a blunt option, OK sure - having Karambit in your bag of tricks might be useful sometimes. But that's honestly a very niche use case and the original question was about a "new alt MNK", which doesn't really sound like someone who is after an ultra-niche weapon option for a primarily non-H2H job for basically one event and a couple specific fights and party setups. That's typically more of a suggestion for somebody like "I'm a hardcore DNC who wants every possible niche set there is", not "my new alt MNK".

And thinking about this a little more, blunt options for the jobs that can use Karambit:

MNK, PUP: Godhands are better, Sakpata R0 are close (and totally fine if you're just looking for a temporary option)

WAR, DRK: Loxotic Mace +1 is better on anything of consequence, so Karambit would really be just a non-optimal toy for fun.

BST, NIN: Karambit kinda sucks, nobody is bringing a BST or NIN to anything* to do blunt damage (and I say this as a highly geared NIN and BST who looks for opportunities to use both jobs). I brought BST into Sheol C and tried Karambit once on some blunt weak mobs, it sucked, never did it again. I use NIN often in Sheol segment farming, never find it very useful on that job either.
*one super niche exception of maybe NIN on the beastmen Master Trial.

RDM THF DNC: So that really leaves just these three jobs. Is there any common use case for Karambit on RDM (I honestly don't know)? THF DNC have some very specific use cases in multi-fight Sheol Gaol NM situations where you need blunt damage, but even that is really for the most hardcore players and for specific party setups & NMs.

Aside from Gaol, there's what... one Master Trial (Unafraid of the Dark) and Warder of Temperance when it changes to blunt damage only mode? Ultra niche.

RDM gets ambu club, which afaik mostly invalidates h2h, still good for the other 2 in that pool but like you said, niche

You still have to clear Kalunga for Sakpata, so for me it's not a option for a new MNK. I just used Karambit until I get my Verethragna, it performs very well and pulse can be obtained by yourself as well.

If you're paying someone for a pulse weapon anyway, why not pay someone for a V0 kalunga win instead was my point.

Not having 45 days online yet, and/or no merc that does it, but pulses are generally falling from the sky with all the low effort silvers.

Or maybe you can't/won't farm segments on that char and your phone 2 is better spent on nyame or mpaca, sakpata would be a huge waste as a monk. No one takes a monk to segs.

It's all about the context of the situation. That's why the question is always silly, only you (the asker) know your situation.

How available are your options. How long will you use it. How poor are you (time and money). Like if you can lowman godhands, why put any effort into any h2h first, just take the spark hands. Or the domain hands. So many missing datapoints.

For an "alt monk" near 0% of the time the answer should be sakpata. An "alt war" who may play monk, at some point, then sure.

karambit are better than godhands in a handful of situations until you start reaching higher ranks anyways, which let's you get a more useful aeonic. considering it's a new alt, that could be instrument or gun for example.

Yes so this is mainly going to be used for when ambuscade uses a monk his main is Cor which he almost has his Death Penalty and i would rather make the Aeonic Gun. I already cleared Kalunga myself and also have access to pulse weapons so i guess it would be more geared focused to ambuscades or maybe dynamis and omen content.

I'm curious about this, what kind of situations?


That's fair, and yeah since Ryugi is saying this is a COR main, I probably would indeed go for Fomalhaut before Godhands for the ammo and physical ranged setups if prioritizing which Aeonic to go for first.

As for comparing Karambit to Sakpata's Fists, do people think their performance is really that different? Tossing a couple sets into Izanami's Kastra simulation calculator, I get Karambit only a slight bit ahead of R0 Sakpata, and basically a sidegrade to R15 Sakpata.

Much like not choosing Godhands frees you up to select a more impactful Aeonic, not choosing Karambit lets you spend those Ambuscade points and pulse weapons on a different and maybe more useful Ambu weapon (Naegling, Tauret, Shining One...). And if I was gearing a character with COR MNK, I'd want Naegling and Tauret before I'd want Karambit.

I kinda view either Karambit or Sakpata as perfectly viable choices for a MNK without Godhands/Verethtragna. Comes down more to which one is easier for you to acquire, or requires less sacrifice of another more desirable Aeonic/Ambuscade weapon.

was on par or ahead when I last compared to R0 for some solo SC situations and spam situations under impetus, and that was before i tested the aftermath to be in the same 50% cap as gear.

godhands did do better under FW solo SC with TK > TK > TK, though

his calculator doesn't calculate DPS like my simulation does. it generates the sets that reduces the average time to TP and does not factor in the unique attribute of karambit's store tp on crits. it also requires you to build TP for aftermath instead of granting it permanently

my program is a full simulation that duplicates the game to the best of our knowledge and I can have it set up to perform up to a three step SC, also doesn't always assume since if the window closes before the next WS from a missed hit or anything, then it won't create a SC.

it has been quite awhile though and I don't recall if i had even checked with +3 emp gear being options, but i can run any situation you'd like

i would also agree that naegling/tauret are better ambuscade upgrades, though. and if he has a relatively new character, i dont' think he can even do the boss for sakpata's. i would also agree that content he said his monk is going to, it doesn't need the extra damage that godhands/vere/etc offer, and there are more useful aeonics to get than godhands.

the most efficient bead farming is also an easy way to farm pulses, though, spamming behemoth.

Just to be sure, I just got back into the game—how is the hierarchy of Prime + REMAS-R15 weapons on MNK considering Master Level 50? The last time I read up on MNK was in early 2023 when the Master Levels weren't fully developed, and no one had a Prime weapon yet, lol.

For Sub Job, I imagine /WAR is still the best option due to the FTP replication in the WS formula, right? I’ve seen some DDs using /DRG for the Super Jump and the 10% WSDMG, which applies to all hits.

Pretty sure you gonna pass on the prime for a while, it take so much work, even for a high end group. Personally I love my R15 godhands, Sakpata is also a very interesting piece but yeah nothing has change

The general thinking is:

Verethragna or Godhands are best depending on situation, both are significantly above any other H2H weapon.

Don't bother with Spharai or Glanzfaust.

If no REMA, Karambit is the most recommended. Sakpata's Fists are in the same overall tier. Behind those are stuff like some of the Unity H2H weapons.


EDIT: Oh, and the above wasn't even considering Prime. I'm not really sure where people think that sits now, but from my (haven't been paying a ton of attention) perspective I don't recall hearing people being that excited about it. I still see Vere/GH handily beating stage 4 Prime in a few quick simulations I ran, but I certainly wouldn't consider that definitive (and I probably didn't have optimal WS sets for Maru Kala).